Imagination & Reality: The Wardrobe we use to see and understand creation | Part 1/3

Imagination & Reality: The Wardrobe we use to see and understand creation | Part 1/3

Apr 21, 2023 | Latest, LegendFiction Show

Nate Hile and Shari Suter from Grail Country join Dominic to chat about imagination as a ‘truth-bearing faculty.’ Not the fanciful kind of daydreaming, but deep imagination, imagination that reveals truth about reality to us. We touch on George MacDonald who speaks of imagination as divine, a power of synthesis and revealing. Coleridge distinguishes between primary and secondary imagination. We discuss how dogmatism represses the imagination. It is vital to encourage imagination, but to also “teach children to dream nobler dreams.”

Imagination is more than mental muddling. It is the way that we see and understand the world. Imagination is made up of stories or ‘wardrobes’ that we use to make sense of reality. These wardrobes come in many forms, including literature, film, or even music. These wardrobes can be used to uncover new ways of perceiving and interpreting the world. We touch on several examples like C.S. Lewis’ ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe,’ and J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings.’

This conversation is part of a mini-series. Our next two conversations plan to discuss these questions:

Shari: George Macdonald & the Inklings – allegory vs true fairy tales
Nate: The Imaginal/Perilous Realm – Grail questing, and why the British poets contributed most toward the imagination, Owen Barfield and participation

ABOUT SHARI, NATE, & @grailcountry
Shari and Nate are two YouTube creators who met through a Discord server and now produce content together on Grail Country. They discuss imagination as a truth-bearing faculty. Shari is from the Central Interior of British Columbia, while Nate is from Washington State. Nate’s educational background is in journalism, but he worked in the culinary field for a long time before transitioning into state government. Shari and Nate explain how their project, Grail Country, is inspired by Parsifal and the idea of a Grail Quest, which is about uncovering one’s true self.

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Dominic Vera

Founder of LegendFiction, and a total Wandery. Geeks over epics, mystics, science, the angelic, & Netflix. A young, Catholic dad and novelist passionate about worldbuilding and faith-inspired fiction. A graduate from the Writer’s Institute for Children’s Literature, self-published a children’s novel, and works as a full time marketer and graphic designer. Married, with a small girl and a smaller corgi. Website | See more of Dominic's posts

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